Sunday, September 16, 2012

The Browser daily newsletter [16 Sep 2012]

16 September 2012

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Best of the Moment

Ivory Worship

Bryan Christy | National Geographic | 14 September 2012

Thousands of elephants die each year so that their tusks can be carved into religious objects. In the Philippines the link between ivory and the church is so strong that the word garing means both ivory and religious statue Comments

Why I Write

Simon Schama | FT | 13 September 2012

"Orwell's four motives for writing still seem to me the most honest account of why long-form non-fiction writers do what they do, with 'sheer egoism' at the top." For Schama, it's also a "resistance to the attrition of memory" Comments

Putin Redux: Continuity And Change

Richard Sakwa | OD Russia | 14 September 2012

Useful account of Russian political model as Putin's new presidential term gets underway. He weakened the modernisers by slapping down Medvedev's hopes of a second term. Now he needs to rally them a bit, to restore the balance Comments

Why Are US Leaders So Obsessed With Credibility?

Stephen Walt | Foreign Policy | 11 September 2012

US is locked into a foreign policy formula that "might have made some degree of sense during the Cold War, [but] is increasingly counterproductive today". It would be better to be more flexible, and to introduce more conditionality Comments

Evolutionary Trees Of Traditional Medicine Plants Provide Hints For Drug-Makers

Ed Yong | Not Exactly Rocket Science | 11 September 2012

We tend to divide medicines into natural (derived from plants) and "man-made". But that's bunk. Many more drugs than you may think come from plants. How then do we go about the business of "bioprospecting"? Here are some answers Comments

Why Lance Armstrong Will Never Give In

Brian Alexander | Outside | 13 September 2012

"Should Armstrong come forward and talk? Such a prospect may delight people who believe he’s gotten away with too much for too long. But that strategy doesn’t make sense for the man himself" Comments

FiveBooks Interview

Nigel Slater on The Top Cookery Books of All Time

The cooking writer tells us about the guides to living and eating well that he can't do without

Featured Special Report

After Aurora

How does one make sense of such killings? And can we, will we, do anything to stop it happening again?

Reader Recommendations

rszbt Awesome! Great report: @adelaigue: My trip to see the oil sands Video: t.co/s1C7x7tn #browsings

Book of the Day

The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear by Ralph Keyes

Eric Olsen says: "What you get from Keyes is that you need to be a neurotic wreck to be a good writer because the fears and the prose"

Video of the Day

60-Second Adventures In Economics

Part Six: Rational Choice Theory

Quote of the Day

Dan Harmon, on screenwriting

"It doesn't matter how small or large the scope of your story is, what matters is the amount of contrast"